The Largest Earthquakes Ever Recorded

These rankings are based on magnitude alone, not casualties or damage. Because the magnitude scale is logarithmic, the gap between #1 and #10 below is far larger than the numbers alone suggest — every whole-magnitude step is roughly ten times the wave amplitude. See what that actually means. All ten are instrumentally recorded earthquakes — measured by seismometers, not historical estimates — sourced directly from USGS.